NBBJ Appoints Steve McConnell, FAIA, Managing Partner

SEATTLE, March 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- NBBJ has announced today that Steve McConnell, FAIA, has been appointed Managing Partner. McConnell has served at NBBJ for 24 years, most recently as the firmwide Design Partner. His appointment to the Managing Partner position comes at a time when the company, a 10-office, 750-person firm, is expanding its services and growing in the regions where it operates.

As Managing Partner, McConnell will report to NBBJ's Board and oversee the firm's strategy as well as its marketing, design practice and operations leadership.

After 18 years of successfully leading the firm, outgoing Managing Partner Scott Wyatt, FAIA, will become NBBJ's Chairman of the Board and will continue to lead NBBJ's corporate practice, which is currently working on projects for Amazon, Google and Tencent, among others.

Jonathan Ward will replace McConnell as Design Partner on the leadership team.

"Steve is a proven leader with strong design skills, business acumen and the ability to bring people together. His vision will help us enter our next stage of design innovation," said Scott Wyatt, Chairman.

"Clients demand solutions that are innovative and high-performing, and NBBJ has been a partner in helping them boldly transform their organizations and communities in times of rapid change," said Steve McConnell. "NBBJ will continue to hone additional capabilities at the intersection of design, technology and research, allowing us to make leaps in how the built environment enables better ways of working, learning and healing."

McConnell, a 30-year veteran of the architecture industry, is a widely recognized practice builder and thought leader on performance-based design and project delivery innovation. During his tenure as Design Partner, McConnell's passion for improving the way buildings are designed, built and operated led to groundbreaking new practices: data-driven design analytics for exploring organizational performance while mitigating risk; an integrated global delivery network; and prefabrication strategies for quality and efficiency. He led the effort to become one of the industry's first to commit to the "2030 Challenge" to reduce building energy use, and he endorsed an NBBJ research effort with academic partners to lower hospital energy use, resulting in a $1.5 million Department of Energy grant to deploy findings.

He has directed and managed major projects in the U.S. and internationally throughout his career, including headquarters for Reebok and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as well as award-winning courthouses. He has been responsible for more than 100 projects representing more than 10 million square feet and over $5 billion in construction cost.

McConnell's work has received more than 40 honor awards from the American Institute of Architects, General Service Administration, American Architectural Foundation, Boston Society of Architects, Chicago Athenaeum, Commercial Real Estate Development Association (NAIOP), Building Owners and Managers Association and International Interior Design Association.

About NBBJNBBJ creates innovative places and experiences for organizations worldwide, and designs environments, communities and buildings that enhance people's lives. Founded in 1943, NBBJ is an industry leader in healthcare and corporate facilities and has a strong presence in the commercial, civic, science, education and sports markets. The firm has won numerous awards and has been recognized as one of the "greenest" architecture firms in the U.S. NBBJ has more than 700 employees in ten offices worldwide, including Beijing, Boston, Columbus, London, Los Angeles, New York, Pune, San Francisco, Seattle and Shanghai. Clients include Alibaba, Amazon, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Boeing, Cambridge University, Cleveland Clinic, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Massachusetts General Hospital, Microsoft, Reebok, Salk Institute, Samsung, Stanford University, Starbucks, Telenor, Tencent and the Wellcome Trust. (http://www.nbbj.com)